CSC LTD. Judge OKs schedule for 2-day auction

The judge postponed deciding whether the union will represent workers if all or part of the mill is sold.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Cleveland hotel will be the site next week for a two-day auction of CSC Ltd., a sale that could spell the end of 60 years of steelmaking at the Warren mill -- or the beginning of a new operation.
Judge William Bodoh of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Youngstown approved the auction schedule set by Michael Fox International, a Baltimore-based auctioneer, hired to run the sale. Bidding will start at 9 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at the Cleveland Airport Holiday Inn.
Two days are needed, said Don Caiazza, a CSC executive and former president, because there are hundreds of items to sell in the 400-acre steel bar mill, a steelmaking fixture in Trumbull County since the 1940s.
The auctioneer has listed more than 1,395 items on its auction Web site for CSC, www.michaelfox.com, ranging from hand tools and workbenches to cranes and rolling mills. "There's a lot of stuff there," Caiazza said.
Part of a small crew still working at the mill, Caiazza said he's seen "an extraordinarily large amount of traffic" in the idle mill lately, mostly visitors interested in buying equipment. CSC's melt shop, 12-bar mill, continuous caster and finishing facility, all new or relatively new, have generated the most interest.
Sale prospects: CSC managers and the company's attorneys have focused on selling the mill as a whole, operating facility ever since the steelmaker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. The mill left 1,375 jobless when it halted operations in April, and officials wanted to save at least some of those lost jobs.
That could still happen, but Caiazza said he's not optimistic. "It's so far along in the game now," he said sadly, adding that he has no information to indicate that a buyer might make a surprise bid for the entire plant at next week's auction.
But Jeffrey Baddeley, an attorney for CSC, told Judge Bodoh that "at least one buyer has expressed interest in buying the real estate" as well as the mill equipment, and that would indicate an interest in running at least a part of the plant. The judge approved selling the real estate, along with the personal property, free of any liens.
Union: Judge Bodoh put off making a decision on whether the United Steelworkers of America have the right to represent future workers at the mill, should all or part be purchased and reopened. The union suggested the postponment.
"We're willing to work with anybody, whether they open the whole thing or just a part of it," said USWA Local 2243 president John Kubilis. "We're just interested in saving jobs, even a few."
Atty. David Fusco, a USW attorney, said the union has a successorship clause in its contract and will argue for representation rights if all or part of the mill is sold to a new operator. The issue will be moot, however, if the mill is dismantled and sold piecemeal.
Fusco said the auctioneer will likely accept bids first on the mill as a whole, then on the three major parts of the mill: the finishing area, the rolling mill and the melt shop. Next, bidding will start on each piece of equipment not already sold in the first phase.